Cake Is Falling Apart

I baked 2 8" round chocolate cakes late this afternoon. I let them cool for 20 minutes in the pans and then let them cool almost completely (they were still a little warm) on the cooling racks. I wrapped them in 2 layers of saran wrap and then went out. When I came home several hours later, I took the wrap off to level, fill and crumb coat when I discovered that the cakes were crumbling on the edges.

I was able to level them and managed to get them filled and looking somewhat cake like, but the crumb coat was a disaster. The cake is together, crumb coated and the right shape, but it looks like it was frosted with cookies and cream icing! I'll look at it again in the morning, but I think I'll be up tomorrow night baking a new one. The 10" round vanilla I did at the same time is fine.

This is a gift for a friend from work, due on Saturday morning. The chocolate was a new recipe for me, so I'm quite sure I messed it up, but I've never had this happen before. I'm new to decorating, but I've been baking for a long time, so I'm usually pretty good at following a recipe. I guess not this time!

I'm so sorry this happened...if I had to guess it would be the steam inside the plastic wrap made the cake too wet and it fell apart. It's best to completely cool the cake before wrapping it so it doesn't happen but that doesn't help anything now. Hopefully the crumbcoat will crust enough to make the final coat easier to finish off well. (((HUGS)))

Thank you for your thoughts! I knew I shouldn't have rushed things. I'll know better next time. In the light of morning, I think I can save it. The crumb coat isn't pretty, but the cake it holding together, so I'll attempt to put the finish icing on it and see what happens. I'm still prepared to just make another cake if I need to. Either way, my friend will get her cake!